We are a diverse group of people spanning the globe, all connected by a passion for fungi.
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Founding Director
Founding Director
Giuliana Furci is a field mycologist, foundress and Executive Director of the Fungi Foundation, the first NGO dedicated to fungal conservation in the world. She is an associate at Harvard University, a National Geographic Explorer, a Dame of the Order of the Star of Italy and the deputy chair of the IUCN Fungal Conservation Committee. Giuliana is the author of several titles, including a series of three field guides to Chilean fungi. She co-authored the publication that delimits the term “funga,” and the 3F Proposal - Fauna, Flora & Funga, as well as the first “State of the World's Fungi” (Kew, 2018).
Programs Lead
Programs Lead
Daniela studied Plant Biotechnology Engineering at the University of Concepción and specialized in the research of mycorrhizal fungi. She joined the Fungi Foundation as a volunteer in 2015, and one of her first tasks was to create a sustainable harvesting plan for Butyriboletus loyo, a mycorrhizal fungal species endemic to Chile and currently endangered. Starting in 2017, she worked as CEO of the foundation for three years. During this time, she implemented a program involving mushroom gatherers from a town called Empedrado in Chile; oversaw the distribution of more than 800 field guides to public schools across the country; and coordinated numerous outreach and training activities aimed at students, the general public, and artists. She also led the organization of the first Latin American workshop for assessing fungal species for the IUCN Red Lists. Currently, Daniela is responsible for organizing educational activities in Chile and leading the mission to bring fungi into classrooms by training and supporting teachers. She also leads mycological expeditions while continuously researching the fungal kingdom, writing both scientific papers and science communication articles, and collaborating with interdisciplinary groups, academics, and other NGOs across Latin America. Daniela is a member of the Latin American Mycological Association, where she participates in the Fungal Conservation Group, serves on the Ethics Committee, and leads the Education Committee. In 2025, she was recognized on the 100 Chilean Young Leaders list for her contribution to nature conservation.
Programs Manager and Expeditions Lead
Programs Manager and Expeditions Lead
Cristian Moreno is a Chilean Engineer in Natural Renewable Resources with an MSc in Global Biodiversity Conservation. As a member of the Fungi Foundation since 2013, he has been part of the organization's early development and long-term vision. Currently, Cristian serves as the Foundation's Program Manager and Expedition Lead, developing projects within the Elders and Conservation Programs and coordinating the logistics for expeditions. Driven by a deep respect for Nature, he advocates for the inclusion of fungi in the global Rights of Nature framework. Grounded in anticolonial principles, his approach seeks to respect fungi, honoring ancestral knowledge, and protecting the ecological and cultural relationships essential for biodiversity and our planet.
UK Policy Lead
UK Policy Lead
Dr.Merlin Sheldrake is a biologist and author of Entangled Life: How Fungi Make Our Worlds, Change Our Minds, and Shape Our Futures, a New York Times and Sunday Times bestseller, and winner of the Royal Society Book Prize and the Wainwright Prize. He is the presenter of Fungi: Web of Life, a giant screen documentary narrated by Björk. Merlin is an honorary research associate of the University of Oxford, a research associate of the Vrije University Amsterdam, and works with the Society for the Protection of Underground Networks.
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International Policy Lead
International Policy Lead
Oscar is a geographer, holds an MSc in Geography, and is a PhD student in the Geography program at the Universitat Autònoma de Barcelona. He has represented Chile in international negotiations under the United Nations Convention on Biological Diversity (CBD), where he led, from the Ministry of the Environment, the launch of the Chile-UK Pledge for Fungal Conservation. He also led Chile’s engagement with the Intergovernmental Science-Policy Platform on Biodiversity and Ecosystem Services (IPBES), coordinating the national position on the Kunming-Montreal Global Biodiversity Framework to 2030, resource mobilization and financial mechanisms, as well as the planning, monitoring, and reporting of agreement implementation. Oscar has participated in negotiations on IPBES assessments related to Transformative Change and the Nexus between Biodiversity, Health, Food, Water, and Climate Change. His experience includes promoting innovative mechanisms to close the biodiversity conservation finance gap, such as the application of natural capital approaches and the development of novel economic schemes linked to Chile’s sustainability bond policy.
Oscar is a geographer, holds an MSc in Geography, and is a PhD student in the Geography program at the Universitat Autònoma de Barcelona. He has represented Chile in international negotiations under the United Nations Convention on Biological Diversity (CBD), where he led, from the Ministry of the Environment, the launch of the Chile-UK Pledge for Fungal Conservation. He also led Chile’s engagement with the Intergovernmental Science-Policy Platform on Biodiversity and Ecosystem Services (IPBES), coordinating the national position on the Kunming-Montreal Global Biodiversity Framework to 2030, resource mobilization and financial mechanisms, as well as the planning, monitoring, and reporting of agreement implementation. Oscar has participated in negotiations on IPBES assessments related to Transformative Change and the Nexus between Biodiversity, Health, Food, Water, and Climate Change. His experience includes promoting innovative mechanisms to close the biodiversity conservation finance gap, such as the application of natural capital approaches and the development of novel economic schemes linked to Chile’s sustainability bond policy.
Communications Lead
Communications Lead
Alejandra is a Chilean journalist with experience in print media, digital platforms, and multimedia journalism. Since the beginning of her career, she has focused on science communication, contributing through storytelling related to nature. She worked as a journalist at Revista Paula, as a multimedia journalist at La Tercera’s Content Lab, and was a producer at Mongabay Latam. Alejandra has been working at the Fungi Foundation since 2022, where she is in charge of the communications strategy, press relations, multiplatform content production, and internal communications.
India Program Lead
India Program Lead
Prithvi is an entrepreneur, yoga practitioner, citizen scientist, and mental health advocate with a deep interest in the therapeutic benefits of mushrooms. Being the co-founder of Nuvedo, her vision is for people to reclaim control of their lives through mushrooms. She has been a startup catalyst, in building organizations from the ground up across diverse fields. Through Nuvedo, she forges connections with local farming communities and myriad mycophiles across India and is fostering a mushroom revolution that goes beyond mere business. She's on a mission to revolutionize India's allyship with fungi, not just on a plate but in policy as well. With a commitment to conservation, her interests focus on ethical biodiversity research and Indian ethnomycological exploration. As a permaculture advocate, she believes these principles will be instrumental to shaping the Fungi Foundation Chapter in India.
India Program Lead
India Program Lead
Malavika Bhatia is a cultural practitioner and interdisciplinary artist based in New Delhi, India. Malavika has studied Psychology and Evolutionary Anthropology at New York University, and spent a decade developing expertise in urban ecology, foraging as a research practice, and the intersection of fungi with queer ecology and social justice. Their work spans multiple formats—from immersive installations and experiential walks to visual arts, book-making, and writing. Their artistic and educational work has been featured at prestigious institutions including Science Gallery Bengaluru, Kiran Nadar Museum of Art, Foundation for Indian Contemporary Arts, the Bergen Assembly, and Serendipity Arts Festival. Their writing has been published by Atlas Obscura and Current Conservation, among others. As a public educator and community organizer, Malavika has also pioneered India's first urban fungi forays in New Delhi. Malavika contributes to preserving ancestral and indigenous knowledge of fungi through Fungi Foundation's Elders Program, documenting the ethnomycological traditions of tribal communities across India.
Ethnomycologist
Ethnomycologist
Mara is a biologist and holds a PhD in Biosystematics, Ecology, and Management of Natural and Agricultural Resources from the University of Guadalajara. Her research focuses on ethnomycology, with both quantitative and qualitative approaches. She has worked extensively with Wixaritari and mestizo communities in northern Jalisco and southern Zacatecas, as well as with Indigenous peoples in Oaxaca, analyzing the transformation of traditional mycological knowledge and the sociocultural factors that affect it. Throughout her career, she has combined ethnographic and ethnobiological methods with classical and molecular taxonomy tools.
Her work stands out for highlighting mycological knowledge as a living, ever-changing biocultural heritage, and it has been recognized with the national Dr. Teófilo Herrera Award by the Mexican Mycological Society. She is currently carrying out a postdoctoral fellowship at the University of Guadalajara, focused on the recovery of traditional knowledge surrounding the ritual use of Psilocybe in Zapotec communities.
Mara is the lead author of several articles in international scientific journals such as IMA Fungus, Journal of Ethnobiology, Mycologia, and Ethnobiology and Conservation, and has participated in numerous mycology and ethnobiology conferences across Latin America.
In addition to her scientific work, she has actively promoted outreach through workshops, lectures, festivals, and collaborations in audiovisual media. Her commitment to environmental education and equitable access to science is reflected in projects aimed at young people—especially girls—to foster interest in mycology and scientific research in Mexico.
Executive Assistant
Executive Assistant
With several years of experience as an Executive Assistant, Alina has provided high-level support to senior leadership across mission-driven organizations. She has a Bachelor's degree in Political Science and a Master’s in Political Ecology, which has allowed her to explore the intersections of environmental justice, political systems, and sustainable development. She has also engaged hands-on ecological projects, contributing to initiatives such as permaculture design, natural reserve management, and grassroots sustainability programs in Colombia. Her background spans political science, environmental conservation, and the arts. She is also fluent in Russian, English, and Spanish, bringing strong cross-cultural communication skills to her work. Before joining the Fungi Foundation, Alina served as an executive assistant across a range of industries, including the nonprofit sector, architecture, and branding.
Chile Finance Lead
Chile Finance Lead
Hailing from the corporate world, in 2021 Miguel decided to put his professional skills and experience at the service of science and nature: to contribute towards the betterment of the planet and to rediscover its mysteries. This is how his adventure within the Fundación Fungi began. Born in a Chilean-Chinese family, mushrooms were an essential ingredient used in the preparation of meals, memories that contain great joy and affection. Miguel enjoys practicing languages as well as learning about history and classical art.
Finance Lead
Finance Lead
Steve Mendelsohn oversees the Fungi Foundation's financial business operations. His career has focused on leading a variety of humanitarian, arts and media non-profits/NGO's in their work around the world. He currently also consults for SPUN, one of the Fungi Foundation's important partners. Steve has an MBA from Harvard Business School, and a B.S. in Economics from the Wharton School at the University of Pennsylvania. Before working with non-profits, Steve managed marketing at American Express and Razorfish, a digital consulting firm.
Co-Curator FFCL Fungarium
Co-Curator FFCL Fungarium
Lives in Argentina, he is a mycologist and is the co-curator of the FFCL Fungarium. Although the value of a fungarium is mainly Biological, Francisco also enjoys the historical and artistic importance of the materials, since each sample presents a certain calligraphy, language and methods of the person who collected it. It becomes part of mycological history. He also enjoys literature, opera, reggaeton and trying foods from other countries, especially if they are spicy.
These are our past volunteers. They have been an integral part of the
foundation who help us spread the mycelial message.
Partnerships Volunteer
Partnerships Volunteer
Kai is a naturalist deeply passionate about fungi and their role in the ecosystem. He is doing his undergraduate in Ecology at the University of Edinburgh.